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Friday, August 2, 2013

Interview day with author Vicki Delaney

Let’s hear it for Vicki Delany.
Jamie Tremain welcomes one of the busiest authors in Canada. She juggles two
different series; the Constable Molly Smith series and my favourites the
Klondike mysteries. Her gothic thrillers are stand alone books and will raise
the hairs on your neck.

More than Sorrow -published
by Poisoned Pen Press. “Atmosphere as chilling as the
subtle roll of mist across a field”–Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling
author.

“6th in her critically
acclaimed Constable Molly Smith series, A COLD WHITE SUN places Vicki Delany’s
marvelous storytelling on full display. Delany’s formidable Canadian
sleuth, Molly Smith, pits her skills against an ice-cold killer, just as her
personal life heats up. I love this series!”Julia Spencer-Fleming,New York Timesbestselling author.

Welcome to our blog Vicki. Liz and I have been fans for a number of
years. We each have our favourites. Liz leans toward your psychological
suspense books while I love your characters in the Klondike mysteries, set in
Dawson City, Yukon.

Fans
of Molly Smith are eagerly awaiting this sixth book in the series. How do you
manage to keep her fresh and exciting? Can you see many more books with Molly
in them?

Vicki:

First, Liz and Pam and
Jamie, thanks so much for having me. I look forward to interviewing Jamie
Tremain one day.

A Cold White Sunis the sixth book in the series, and the seventh is almost finished.
It’s called Under Cold Stone, and
will be released in April. As for
keeping Molly herself fresh, the fact that she’s very young when the series
begins gives me plenty of room for her to grow.
In the first book, In the Shadow
of the Glacier, she is 26 and a probationary constable. By Valley
of the Lost, she’s a Constable Third Class. She’s moving through time,
although slower than in real time, and I am trying to give her experience and
maturity in her life as well as in her job as the books progress. So I have a
lot of material left to keep Molly around for a good time still. Eventhe
co-protagonist, John Winters, although he is at the height of his career and
approaching 50, is learning things and slowly adapting to life in this
unfamiliar small mountain town.

When
you are not travelling to promote your books, you are either making visits to South
Sudan, on tour to the Yukon and NWT, holding writing classes and carrying on
your duties as VP of Crime Writers of Canada. Oh, and your commitment to “Scene
of the Crime Festival’ taking place August 18th on Wolfe Island.http://www.sceneofthecrime.ca/

Do
you set yourself a writing schedule or is writing something you’re always
doing?

Vicki:

I have a strict schedule, and I have to stick to it.
Here’s my deep dark secret: I don’t actually like writing. I am not compelled or driven to do it. I like the end product. So, if I didn’t get
up every morning, seven days a week, and write for the pre-determined three or
four hours, nothing would get done. Because there would always be something I’d
rather be doing. I don’t write when I’m travelling.
That’s probably because of the aforementioned disruption to my schedule, and
the excuse not to sit down and write. The exception is when I visit South
Sudan. There is literally nothing to do
in Juba, South Sudan when my daughter and her friends are at work, so writing
is my only recourse.

You
live in bucolic Prince Edward County surrounded by fields of sunflowers and
vineyards. The beach is close by and small towns and villages dot the landscape
around you. You travel extensively for family visits or for your work as an
author. In all your travels have you found another place you could live, as
idyllic as where you live now?

Vicki: My favourite place in the world is Nelson,
British Columbia. Trafalgar, the
location of the Molly Smith books, is Nelson not-at-all-thinly-disguised. I’d
love to live in Nelson, but my mom is in Ontario as are two of my three
daughters. One of my daughters lived for
18 months in the Turks and Caicos. I
could see myself living there for a while at least.

You
came from corporate Canada as a computer programmer and systems analyst to the
writing life. Has your old livelihood and work experience influenced how you go
about planning a new book?

Vicki:

In the great to
outline or not to outline debate, I fall somewhere in the middle. I usually
have a rough idea of what I want to accomplish before I begin a book. I something think it’s a result of my computer experience. If I was going to design a new programme for a bank, I needed to know before I began if it was going to debit or credit your account.

You
were in South Sudan earlier in the year visiting your daughter who works there.
Notwithstanding the culture shock and a much different way of life, did you find
the time to write about your experiences or can we look forward to a new
mystery series set in the Sudan?

My next book for Rapid
Reads is titled Juba Good (Spring
2014) and is about an RCMP officer with the UN in South Sudan. But that will probably be the only book I set
there. I would have to go to the dark side, I think, to do a realistic
portrayal of the country. Juba Good is the darkest book I have
written.

I
find the writing community is very helpful in promoting each other and Liz and
I have received valuable assistance from you and others in our writing journey.
This paying it forward is a movement I like and is so different from the big
brother attitude of many corporations I’ve worked for. Is this a trend that is
here to stay or is it a by product of the social media sites we communicate on
today?

Vicki:
The
Canadian mystery community is extremely close, as you know. It always has been, at least in the twelve or
so years that I’ve been part of it. I
like to say that when I decided to write a book the last thing I was thinking
of was so I’d make new friends. But
that’s been the best part of it. I’d
argue that not only does social media have nothing to do with that, it might
even be detrimental to those close links.
I know Pam and Liz from meeting you in person, right? I think I first met Pam at the book launch
for Gold Fever, and Liz at Bloody
Words. Tomorrow, I’m going to the cottage of one of my CWC friends, and a
couple of other writers will be there also.
These are all people I met at various crime writing functions or
conferences. We’ll drink lots and eat well and talk about books and book
people. Social media, on the other hand,
is about LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME,LOOK AT ME
NOW!!!! Oh, sure people will occasionally drop in a quick reference to someone
else’s new book on their Twitter feed, but it really is all about “me”, not
about making real meaningful friends, getting to know colleagues, and then
giving and receiving advice and encouragement.
My friends and I and fellow-CWCers promote each other because we like each other’s books: we even critique manuscripts and put on joint events. But these are real flesh and blood friends,
not virtual friends. I travel a lot for promotion, as you said, in the US as
well as Canada, and so I meet many crime writers. Often we hit it off and are happy
to exchange guest blog slots or post a link on our FB page or drop a
Tweet. But the personal relationship has
to come first. No, social media if
anything is getting in the way of that sort of thing. Beginning authors who think it’s all about
dropping a few auto-Tweets are missing the point.

What
do you have in the works for your many fans to look forward to?

Vicki:
Gold Web, the fourth Klondike book, will be
released in December. Then Under Cold Stone, Molly Smith #6, will
be out in April. Juba Good sometime in the spring.
Wow, seems like a lot. I am
currently working on a new gothic thriller for Poisoned Pen Press. No title as
of yet, but it will be set on a winery in Prince Edward County, with a
ghost-story from WWII.

All
work and no play.....What do you do in your down time?

Vicki:I read. A lot. I am going to be interviewing Andrew Pyper at
Scene of the Crime, and although I’ve read all of his books, I am reading them
again, so hopefully I can come up with some good questions. I have a small property in the country, and
in the summer I garden and swim. I also travel a lot, which I really enjoy. I’m hoping to go to Spain next year. Promotional stuff takes up a lot of time,
such as this interview. But I do it because I enjoy it. If I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t do it.

You
are known for the different hats you wear. The first time I met you at the
Bloody Words Conference in Ottawa you had on a very smashing hat that was
reminiscent of what your character Fiona MacGillivray of the Klondike series
would wear.

Is
this all very necessary to help sell and promote books today or is this a
personal Vicki-ism?

Vicki: I love wearing
hats, but it is pretty much my promotional shtick. In the summer, on a hot sunny day, I might
wear a nice sun hat, but the fancy hats and fascinators are only for book
promotion. It started with me buying a big Victorian hat to wear to book
signings for the Klondike books, and kinda grew from there. By the way, I have the honour of being the
Canadian Guest of Honour at Bloody Words 2014 (http://2014.bloodywords.com/) and I will be putting some thought into suitable millinery.

Are
you a lone wolf when it comes to writing or would you consider writing with a
collaborator?

Vicki:
Total lone wolf. I can not imagine how
you too can work together. And so effectively, I must say. But then again, I am a pretty solitary
person.

Thanks Vicki for speaking with Jamie Tremain today. We’re
both looking forward to many more books in your series.

“It’s a crime not to
read Delany,” so says the London Free
Press. Vicki Delany is one of
Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. Her newest novel is A Cold White Sun, the sixth book in the
Smith & Winters police procedural series for Poisoned Pen Press. She also
writes standalone novels of psychological suspense, and the light-hearted
Klondike Gold Rush books which are published by Dundurn.

Her Rapid Reads book, A Winter Kill, was shortlisted for the
2012 Arthur Ellis Award for best novella.

Vicki is a member of
the Capital Crime Writers, The Writers Union of Canada, and is on the board of
the Crime Writers of Canada and the Wolfe Island Scene of the Crime Festival.
She is proud to have been chosen as Canadian guest of honour for Bloody Words, the
Canadian mystery conference, in 2014.

Having taken early
retirement from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial
world, Vicki enjoys the rural life in bucolic, Prince Edward County,
Ontario.

1 comment:

Vicki - I really appreciate your perspective on today's social media and have to agree with you on your assessment. Social media networks may change, evolve, or disappear, but good friends stand the test of time. Thanks again for sharing your time with Jamie Tremain today - look forward to seeing you at Scene of the Crime!